2012 DaVinci Fellows

TAMARA DAVIS, Northern Oklahoma College – While her work experience has remained in the field of English education, her ability to connect with other disciplines has made her not only a valuable English teacher, but a valuable employee at every level. As a lecturer at Oklahoma State University, she did something that higher education instructors all too rarely do and this to work beyond the silo of her department. In a partnership with the Design, Housing and Merchandising Department, she developed and taught two Community of Learners courses so that students could see a crossover in what they were learning.

DR. HARBOUR WINN, Oklahoma City University, founded the Oklahoma City University Film Institute in 1982 and serves as its director. He founded the Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film and Literature at OCU in 1997 and has served as its director since its inception. Through the Center, Dr. Winn develops and presents a documentary film series each spring, conducts field trips to OCU for teachers and students to view and discuss distinguished films and collaborates with other campus and metropolitan organizations to encourage creative projects. He is passionate and driven to further the arts and art integration into the world.

DR. GARY GRADY teaches introductory psychology classes at Connors State College. Dr. Grady uses numerous creative approaches to the challenge, “How can we engage beginning psychology students, motivate and teach them how to go beyond the classroom and the textbook, and discover that psychology is everywhere and has real-life applications?” A few of these approaches include his blog to draw his students into reflecting and commenting on a constantly growing collection of psychology topics and Madness at the Movies, a teaching module on Abnormal psychology, incorporates movie clips to compare how psychological disorders are described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and how they have been portrayed in film.

DR. TIM HUBIN joined the Southwestern Oklahoma State University faculty in 2005 and since that time, he has received two Oklahoma EPSCoR INBRE grants totaling over $600,000. His ideas and innovations in biomedical research are highly respected by his colleagues. Dr. Hubin has the unique ability to intertwine research with class work. His Inorganic Chemistry Lab has become a project-based course for students. His research projects are at the cutting edge of his field where he has numerous patents (14 awarded or pending) and publications (29). All of his publications (11 to date) and presentations (8 at national meetings) since his post-doctoral work have involved undergraduate students.

MARK ZIMMERMAN, University of Central Oklahoma, is now an assistant professor. His impressive body of work as a news photographer brings a depth of knowledge to the photography program. He has been published in such nationally recognized publications as USA Today, The Dallas Morning News, and The Washington Post, and has had photos shown on CNN.com, CBS News, NewsOK.com and Washingtonpost.com.

His creative work using the 150-year-old process of collodion photography began in 2005. Using this method, his documentation of his wife’s breast cancer had an immediate emotional impact on the audience that modern digital photography would not have. Mark found a way to creatively utilize an old process to reflect upon modern issues and problems. Most impressively, he brought his love of this process to the students at UCO and is teaching them to use this medium.